Friday, January 26, 2007

Silent No More

I think the bravest group at the March for Life was the Silent No More crowd. It takes a lot to stand before tens of thousands of people holding signs that read, "I Regret My Abortion."

These women get flack from both sides, pro-life and pro-abort, but they don't let that silence them. It's so important for us to hear their stories.

I didn't get to witness it personally, but 50 of them, men and women, stood on the steps of the Supreme Court and gave their testimony one by one. I'm told that about 100 anti-life protesters tried to shout them down, yelling all kinds of horrible things, but these brave souls stood firm.

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Of course, the flack on the prolife side isn't nearly as strong as from the opposition. The pro-aborts are rabid in their criticism of these women. But, you do still hear, from time to time scoffs from prolifers. Usually, the same people who criticize Project Rachel. I don't quite get the criticism. I think they see these women as committing the unforgivable sin. As Catholics, we know this is wrong -- a truly repentant person can seek forgiveness through the Sacrament of Confession.

I think where the judgement of prolifers comes from is that people get caught up in the emotion. I remember a good Catholic prolife woman telling us that she met a woman who said she had had an abortion and was sorry for it. Our friend said to us, "I couldn't even talk to her!" It seemed she meant that more as an admission of weakness than what she felt was a right attitude.

I also know a non-Catholic woman in her fifties who told me that she had an abortion in her youth. She said to me, "I ask God to forgive me every day of my life!" She is a very compassionate person, patiently suffering a progressive illness, and speaking lovingly of God. I believe that we can't say she hasn't had perfect contrition for all or many of these thirty years.

St. Francis de Sales says, in his Introduction to a Devout Life, "Since the goodness of God is so immense that one moment is enough to obtain and receive His grace, what assurance can we have, that he who was yesterday a sinner is not a saint today?"

I was unable to come to Washington D.C. this year, but I stood with my sign at the capitol in Olympia, Washington. Many protestors with bullhorns, drums, whistles - very sad, indeed. We did not speak there, but we were a silent witness, four of us among 5,000 or so, and statistics would show that we were not the only ones who were post abortive. The protestors were about forty in number.

I spoke at Sacred Heart in Lacey, Washington last night. It was an easy group - they were a pro-life group.

I am humbled by your opinion that we are brave - yes, it is hard to speak out publicly about something so difficult in my life, but I am forever grateful to the Loving, Merciful and Graceful God that I serve.

He has set me free from my horror.

Yes, there are many on the pro-life side who are sickened by us - they would rather we stayed silent, too. However, we cannot and will not.

I encourage those who encounter pro-abortion people to meet them as Christ meets each one of us -for, most of the pro-abortion people are acting out of fear and shame. They, too many of them, are hurting as a result of liberal upbringing and from abortions. They do not know how to heal - and if we on the pro-life side are cruel, judgemental or mean to them, they will take that much longer to come to know our Savior, Jesus Christ.

So, today, as a mother of an aborted son, I urge each and every one of you readers to 1) pray for a pro-abortion person 2) to befriend one and bring Christ to him or her.

I've had people who call themselves "prolife" who have condemned me because I at one point considered abortion, when I was in a desperate situation. It wasn't that I wanted an abortion; it was that I felt trapped, thought that there was no other way out. But even though I didn't go through with it, even though I've spent the intervening 22 years grateful that a friend intervened, the fact that I understand how a woman can feel like there's no other choice, makes me a "baby killer" in these people's eyes.

How vicious they'll be with a woman who has actually endured an abortion is something I don't want to see. They were cruel enough to me for having thought about it.